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The rescue of Bat 21 Bravo, the call sign for Iceal "Gene" Hambleton, a navigator aboard an EB-66 aircraft shot down behind North Vietnamese lines, was the "largest, longest, and most complex search-and-rescue" operation during the Vietnam War.
Jun 6, 2018 · Alone in enemy-held territory, the 53-year-old U.S. Air Force navigator (call sign Bat 21 Bravo) had a head full of highly sensitive information that would make him a prized catch for the Communists, and the Air Force was not about to leave him behind.
Apr 2, 1972 · On April 2, 1972, 53-year-old navigator Lt. Col. Hambleton was the only crewmember to safely eject after his EB-66 (call sign Bat 21) was hit by a surface-to-air missile. He landed in the middle of the spearhead of the enemy's massive Easter Offensive.
Bat*21 is a 1988 American war drama film directed by Peter Markle, and adapted from the book by William C. Anderson, novelist and retired United States Air Force colonel. Set during the Vietnam War, the film is a dramatization based upon the rescue of a U.S. air navigator shot down behind enemy lines in Vietnam.
Lt. Col. Iceal “Gene” Hambleton (Bat 21 Bravo), who was shot down on April 2, 1972 and evaded capture for 11 1/2 days behind enemy lines during the Vietnam War. He was finally rescued by Navy SEAL Thomas R. Norris and ARVN Petty Officer Third Class Nguyen Van Kiet. U.S. Department of Defense photo. Clark was the first to be rescued.
Sep 27, 2004 · Hambleton, a retired lieutenant colonel whose harrowing ordeal was chronicled in two books and was the basis for the 1988 movie “Bat 21,” starring Gene Hackman, died of pneumonia related to lung...
Bat 21 is the story of Lieutenant Colonel Iceal E. "Gene" Hambleton's extraordinary evasion and eventual escape from the clutches of a division of North Vietnamese soldiers.
